Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Destin Bank of America Cooperative Short Sales - Head Spinning!

Bank of America Cooperative short sales are not always as “easy” or “fast” as they make them out to be. If you have received an offer to do a Bank of America cooperative short sale near Destin Florida, here is a sample of an actual file in process. As the short sale listing agent, I take most of the burden off my sellers, but the time line and make-work affects all the parties to the transaction.

First, some background.This Destin Florida short sale seller had a written offer from Bank of America to do a cooperative short sale, get cash back at closing and a waiver of deficiency about six months prior to contract date. As instructed, after listing the property, we faxed his documents to confirm he was participating. We soon received an offer for fair market value, which the seller accepted. What happened next?

3/2/2012 We initiated the new short sale in Bank of America’s online short sale platform, Equator.

3/5/2012 I call Bank of America’s third party coop processor at National Default Servicing (NDS) to inform them the file was initiated. I am informed they have CLOSED the file because the “form” had not been returned in time

3/5/2012 Call Bank of America to find out what is going on. I am informed the seller is approved for Cooperative short sale. They say the file is not with NDS, but with another company, AMS

3/6/2012 11:22 a.m. I finally reach AMS.They state they do NOT have the file, and tell me to call NDS (the first company)

3/6/2012 11:23 a.m. I call NDS again.They state they do NOT have the file (again) and state the seller is NOT eligible for COOP (short for Cooperative short sale). I call the Twitter Team at Bank of America, their escalation department.

3/8/2012 The Twitter Team calls me. I am told the seller emphatically CANNOT DO Cooperative short sale now, there has to be NO OFFER(remember, we have a contract)

3/14/2012 I get a call from NDS that they NOW have the file and the seller CAN do the COOP program if he wants to. (Can you believe this?) They suggest that the seller should still use this program as it will only take 10 days to get approved, much faster than a traditional short sale. (I am not making this up) I am instructed to get the file CLOSED with Bank of America and re-opened with NDS.

4/4/2012 I call NDS for an update and am told it will take 2-4 weeks for them to review “marketing” before I can even upload the contract (It is now one month after the property had a contract, remember?)...I cannot do anything with the existing contract on this property until that time has passed.(OK, "marketing"? I thought I sold it already?)

4/10/2012 I am asked for my “Marketing Plan” for this property. I reply, “Well, the property isunder contract, so maybe my marketing plan has already worked?”

4/16/2012 I get an email from the Cooperative Short Sale Negotiator. She tells me to set the “initial listing price” to $6000 LESS than the contract price. I tell her the property is already UNDER CONTRACT (as I’ve told them a dozen times) in our MLS, and that their investor will then LOSE $6000 by lowering the list price. I get this reply:

“Per the guidelines of the Cooperative Short Sale program, the property MUST be listed at the Bank approved price. Your buyer can simply lower their offer to listing price. You will not be able to submit your offer for review until we receive the MLS with that list price.” (I am not making this up)

Thus, we must re-activate the property, lower the list price, send them a copy of the MLS. After this, I had to change the list price back to what actually produced the contract, since doing otherwise would be an inaccurate picture of what price produced a contract to my association of Realtors.

One month later still, I get more automatic requests to LOWER the price in the MLS, although this Destin property is already sold, and no response from NDS again until I again escalate the file. Now, finally, we are finally on the path to short sale approval, and the buyer is amazingly still on board.

So, the bottom line is, if you get an offer to do a Bank of America cooperative short sale, be prepared to go through this sometimes head-spinning process. Yes, you might get cash back in the end. But the challenges are, will you be able to keep your buyer through the process? Will your Destin short sale agent be able to maneuver through the maze at Bank of America? Do you have questions? Email me at[email protected]